Our drinking club has a reading problem

DRUNK REVIEW: The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn

What I drank:
the cool thing about having a job is money. And you can spend money on better alcohol, and winemaker dinners, which I did with Sam and a friend of ours. Red wine is just better when you’re half frozen and questioning I’f you slather re d on enough moisturizer.

What it’s about:
Anna Fox, former psychologist and now agoraphobic invalid, spends her days observing (spying) on her neighbors. Then one day she witnesses an…Attack? a murder? nothing at all and she’s having a breakdown? Think Rear window + unreliable narrator + 1950s and 60s noir thrillers. It will not kill you to look up the movie references while reading.

this was the Gone Girl of 2018, and in true form I blew it off. Been there, done that, caught that affleck pen15 cameo in the movie adaptation. And then DID YOU CLOCK THIS ARTICLE. is “AJ Finn” a sociopath? (probably?) Did this make me go waitlist the book? (10000000% yes.) (AJ Finn is a pen name, fyi, author’s realname is Dan Mallory)

Thoughts:
Like I said, super midcentry noir. The agoraphobia of the protagonist reads so Rear Window, ans her love of old movies reinforces that overall sense of suspense ans paranoia. And her raging drinking problm reinforces the sense of confusion and reliability. spoiler alert – i cannot believe a woman of her age who drinks that much red wine never once uses an antacid bc let me tell yOU how the adic reflux struggle is real.

The problem w these suspense mysteries is you read enough, you cna predict a fair amount of twists, which did happen for …90% of this book? That’s not to say it wasn’t an unenjoyable read; it’s so well Written you’re just enoyjing the ride and seeing if you’r suspicions are right anod how they’ll be laid out. plus Anna has kind of a secondary plot that really could have been its own book but weaves into the main plot nicely.

OH MY GOD AND THEN THE ENDING. THE ENDING. maybe others saw it coming but i did NOT and it was GREAT. JUST BONKERS.

the one thing that kept bothering me throughout the book was that, before Anna develops agoraphobia, she used to be able to laeve the house, so she knows a lot of her neighbors and should have more of an emotional connection to them? but she seemed SO set away from them that she even forgot one neighbor’s kid’s name even though he’s referenced a fair amount?

What I gave it:
4 glasses of merlot

What I would pair it with:
I mean, she does drink ALL the merlot, but I could see a strong scotch with this